What hotel chains are better in Europe for nightly stays?

[rickandcindy23]

We plan to go to Europe next year, we have never been, probably a Viking Cruise along the Seine river, and we want to stay after the cruise is over, specifically to enjoy Paris or London this first trip.

What hotels should I consider for an ten extra days? We want to stay 2 nights max in any particular hotel, so we can see more while we are there.

We belong to IHG (Holiday Inn) and have the credit card. We also have the Club Carlson card (Radisson).

We would love to have the Hyatt card, too, but have a lot of Chase cards already, so I doubt they will let us have another card.

We do have Hyatt points, though, which we have transferred liberally through Chase's Ultimate Rewards' portal. We have nearly 200,000 Hyatt points currently, and only about 80,000 in the Holiday Inn account.

Hyatt seems to be the best value for U.S. stays, literally a bargain for places like San Francisco, but Hyatt points seem quite high for stays in London. Is it really worth 30K+ points for the Hyatt hospitality?

I am completely out of my comfort zone when booking hotels. I have booked quite a few through Hotwire for stays near the airports on the west coast before our flights to Maui, but I don't want to chance a Europe stay with Hotwire.

 

[Passepartout]

We don't carry any hotel credit cards, and just Choice hotels royalty, so no particular joy in Europe. We use www.hotels.com for lodging there, mostly in independent hotels and get every tenth night free. We like the independent hotels in city centers, and have never had anything even close to a dump. But then again, we go for 3 stars or greater and pay attention to the reviews.

Jim

 

[lily28]

Use your free night from IHG at intercontinental plus points for the 2nd night. Holiday inn costs less in points but Intercintinental so much better. I try to use Hyatt at Italy this summer but can't find any in Rome, Florence or Venice. Spg has some high class hotels in Europe

 

[Talent312]

Intercontinental will be best for high-end stays, but we like to look for independents in city-centers, as well. I use www.venere.com for Euro bookings. IMHO, they do a good job of showing hotels on neighborhood maps, and then narrowing them down by ratings and features.

 

[Jason245]

We plan to go to Europe next year, we have never been, probably a Viking Cruise along the Seine river, and we want to stay after the cruise is over, specifically to enjoy Paris or London this first trip.

What hotels should I consider for an ten extra days? We want to stay 2 nights max in any particular hotel, so we can see more while we are there.

We belong to IHG (Holiday Inn) and have the credit card. We also have the Club Carlson card (Radisson).

We would love to have the Hyatt card, too, but have a lot of Chase cards already, so I doubt they will let us have another card.

We do have Hyatt points, though, which we have transferred liberally through Chase's Ultimate Rewards' portal. We have nearly 200,000 Hyatt points currently, and only about 80,000 in the Holiday Inn account.

Hyatt seems to be the best value for U.S. stays, literally a bargain for places like San Francisco, but Hyatt points seem quite high for stays in London. Is it really worth 30K+ points for the Hyatt hospitality?

I am completely out of my comfort zone when booking hotels. I have booked quite a few through Hotwire for stays near the airports on the west coast before our flights to Maui, but I don't want to chance a Europe stay with Hotwire.

Paris and London have excellent public transportation. Changing hotels will not change your experience. That being said, I would consider spending a night in Versailles. . It can be romantic to strole the gardens when there are no tourists around (I think mondays)...

That being said I have enjoyed both high end and low end hotels In both cities. The Westin across from the tuilier gardens in Paris and Waldorf Astoria in Versailles are two of my all time favorite hotels...that being said, I have also had good stays in monpranase..and the price is much less and location is just as good..



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

 

[PrairieGirl]

Bookings.com

This fall we used bookings.com all through Spain for last minute hotel rooms - although we did stay at Marriott AC twice (good prices on bookings.com), I really preferred the smaller, intimate places we found through bookings.com. Many were in truly historic buildings.

Each property had good descriptions (accurate) and thoughtful reviews. Overall we found some hidden gems that were quite reasonable. When location is everything, think outside the box (chain) and in Europe, experience the locale.

Enjoy your trip!
LeAnn

 

[silentg]

IHG is our choice. We stayed at Crown Plaza in Rome last summer. Also stayed Crown Plaza in London and Holiday Inn in Paris. Combined with timeshare and tours.

 

[mav]

Intercontinentals are fabulous! Crown Plaza very nice usually. Holiday Inn is usually pretty good in Europe. READ REVTEWS! before booking! Room size in Europe with Holiday Inn can be an issue, but if u have a high status with them u can usually get a VERY nice upgrade which solves that problem. The breakfast at Holiday Inns ESPECIALLY in the Middle East is jawdropping! No USA breakfast there. Extremely NICE!! London's Holiday Inns are more USA breakfast . It doesn't hurt before u arrive at a hotel to e-mail and very nicely ask if availability permits can u have a complimentary larger size room. At Holiday Inn Express breakfast is free, at Holiday Inn's u have an option to add on breakfast for 2 for a small extra fee per night. Do that ahead of time on the website because it's cheaper then when u arrive.
On a recent 2 week trip to Oman we spent a week using points at an Intercontinental and the perks I was given were FANTASTIC! Amazing breakfast , lounge etc. We then moved to the Holiday Inn and were given another BIG upgrade and the breakfast at both WOW!

 

[Beaglemom3]

We plan to go to Europe next year, we have never been, probably a Viking Cruise along the Seine river, and we want to stay after the cruise is over, specifically to enjoy Paris or London this first trip.

What hotels should I consider for an ten extra days? We want to stay 2 nights max in any particular hotel, so we can see more while we are there.

We belong to IHG (Holiday Inn) and have the credit card. We also have the Club Carlson card (Radisson).

We would love to have the Hyatt card, too, but have a lot of Chase cards already, so I doubt they will let us have another card.

We do have Hyatt points, though, which we have transferred liberally through Chase's Ultimate Rewards' portal. We have nearly 200,000 Hyatt points currently, and only about 80,000 in the Holiday Inn account.

Hyatt seems to be the best value for U.S. stays, literally a bargain for places like San Francisco, but Hyatt points seem quite high for stays in London. Is it really worth 30K+ points for the Hyatt hospitality?

I am completely out of my comfort zone when booking hotels. I have booked quite a few through Hotwire for stays near the airports on the west coast before our flights to Maui, but I don't want to chance a Europe stay with Hotwire.

Cindy, I thought the same about the Hyatt card. I did not have that particular card even though I have two Hyatt weeks and two other Chase cards. It's a great card and I've read Kal's post on how he used his bonus free nights in Paris. So, I applied for one online a few days ago and much to my surprise, I got approved. Who knew ? Am looking forward to using this for Paris, London, Key West and/or Bonita Springs.

If your travels take you to Bayeux, Normandy (a wonderful town and an originating spot for WWII site tours), I highly recommend the Churchill or its adjacent hotel, Hotel Lara. They are run by the most wonderful hosts. I am not familiar with any chain hotels in the Normandy Beach area. Oh, the Overlord Tour Co. and their Band of Brothers full day tour is the best. JMHO.

=

 

[noson7982]

Wyndham Rewards

You could convert your Wyndham Points to Wyndham rewards points. For 15000 rewards points you can get a free room at the Dolce resorts, Tryp by Wyndham Hotels or other Wyndam Brand hotels

Bob

 

[sfwilshire]

We stayed in Marriotts in the UK and the ones we stayed in were even better than their counterparts in the US. I noticed they have a new promo for the Marriott credit card that includes a bonus 80K points if you spend $3000 in the first 3 months. They have an annual fee, but it includes a free night each year, which should exceed the value of the fee.

I split my domestic stays between Marriott and Hilton, but Marriott seems to have a better points redemption value. I just try to keep points in both programs for times when a Marriott is not available in my desired location. Marriott has good bonus offers and Hilton has been offering double points a lot lately.

Sheila

 

[elaine]

The Marriott and Hiltons are all good. There are also hotels in the Novotel chain family including more upscale Mercure and Pullman. We are staying at a Mercure this summer in Paris. There appears to be a good Pullman right at Versailles castle--and, of course, there is a great Hilton right at Versailles. If your are going to V, you might consider 1 or 2 nights at one of those, come in late one night after a day in Paris, then get to V 1st thing and spend the whole day touring inside, the grounds, to town, then leave the next AM for your next place to visit. Plus, you have a place to rest during the day, if you want. You could also do 1 night and store your bags for the day.
The ICs are nice, as PP have said, and the one in London has a great location. If you are paying $, there are many decent Best Westerns in smaller cities, where there might not be a Marriott or Hilton, or they are priced too high. It's weird, as we have not stayed at a BW in the US in 20 years, but have stayed at many in Europe. I think they are all indep franchises. Most are solid 3 stars with comfortable rooms, beds, good free breakfasts in many, and located right in town. The BW give you a bit more local, homey feel. The quality can vary, so be sure to look at photos/reviews on trip advisor. I always book directly with a hotel and make sure I can canx so I have some flex in my schedule to change it around during planning stages. Policies differ, but most have 1-5 day canx for free. Take a paper copy of all of your confirms. We have never had an issue, but I take them just in case.
ps-ricksteves.com travel forum is the European travelers' version of TUG. There is a BB to post questions for everything--countries, trains, restaurants, how to get the tram from the airport, etc. I have even gone to a specific destination/hotel based mostly on a RS poster's recommendation (and it was great).

 

[MichaelColey]

Do you have elite status with any hotel chains? If so, you can often get some nice upgrades overseas.

Also, don't neglect to check out Bed & Breakfasts. Those are pretty big throughout Europe, and are often better prices than the hotel chains.

If you have points with hotel chains, you probably want to check those out because cash rates in Europe can be very high. Some of the best redemption values for most hotel points programs are in Europe.

 

[elaine]

and, at least Hilton (don't know about others) is matching status that you might have for other major chains. I got my Marriott gold matched for Hilton gold, which now gives me 3 days of free breakfast @ hilton for DH and I this summer in Europe--that is a $40 per day value. Hilton also has some decent points and cash deals in Europe.

 

[Passepartout]

(Ducking) IMO you lose much of the experience and ambiance of going to Europe by staying in an American hotel. Yes, I know that you may like the familiarity, but if you always go for the familiar, why travel?

Jim

 

[rickandcindy23]

With IHG, we have platinum elite status. Club Carlson we are Gold, but CC makes us pay cash for the upgraded rooms, which we do not need.

I still haven't applied for Marriott or Hilton hotel cards. When I've looked at the points required with our free accounts, set up specifically to view award nights, I have only seen high points for Marriott hotels. A hotel room in Seattle might be $84.00, but it is 25,000 points.

Holy cow that is a lot of points for a Marriott hotel room, especially when most of my points are transferred from Chase's UR portal. Hyatt, on the other hand, is a real bargain!

 

[elaine]

I have found that transferring from a CC for hotel points is usually not a good deal. And the per night for Paris/London for Marriott is more like 60K+ a night, but the rate might be 400 euros. We usually wind up paying cash for rooms at Best Western. I agree about Marriotts/IC/Hiltons, etc. They are set up for American business clients. You could be anywhere in the world and not know it. We do like them for comfortable beds, etc. We find that a decent Best Western gives us more of the local feel, while still having predictable creature comforts, at a notch lower than Marriott, IMHO. Plus, the price is usually 1/2 of the Marriott or Hilton.

 

[rickandcindy23]

(Ducking) IMO you lose much of the experience and ambiance of going to Europe by staying in an American hotel. Yes, I know that you may like the familiarity, but if you always go for the familiar, why travel?

Jim

Yes, I am sure that is true. I am hoping to use points exclusively for sleeping because we are going to pay for our airline tickets, which are going to be quite expensive. We cannot fly economy for that many hours, so we hope to book business or first. I am trying to save money somewhere.

 

[Pompey Family]

(Ducking) IMO you lose much of the experience and ambiance of going to Europe by staying in an American hotel. Yes, I know that you may like the familiarity, but if you always go for the familiar, why travel?

Jim

I disagree. I have found all the European Marriott's (with the exception of the Courtyard near Rome Airport) to be very different from their American counterparts. Most of the US ones lack the character that the major European city ones have. Breakfast and the lounges are usually better and most come with a local touch.

There isn't really much more to gain from staying in a non-US chain hotel. The staff are going to be local in either option, food is going to be similar, if not better at the major chains plus you have the big benefit of being able to use points to stay.

 

[mav]

I disagree. I have found all the European Marriott's (with the exception of the Courtyard near Rome Airport) to be very different from their American counterparts. Most of the US ones lack the character that the major European city ones have. Breakfast and the lounges are usually better and most come with a local touch.

There isn't really much more to gain from staying in a non-US chain hotel. The staff are going to be local in either option, food is going to be similar, if not better at the major chains plus you have the big benefit of being able to use points to stay.

I agree 100%. We just arrived back last weekend from 2 weeks at the Marriott Omar Khayyam in Cairo and "Dorothy, it sure wasn't Kansas". We had a ball! the staff was amazing , the lounge like none in the USA I have been to, and the hotel was SO NICE! It was in what used to be a palace. We were ready to move in! LOVED the staff there and the local Egyptian people. Second trip to Egypt and hands down Middle Eastern hospitality is second to none we have experienced. Marriotts in London , France and other Western are different, some in old historical buildings and old manor houses . Just read reviews before booking anything . I do and we are rarely disappointed. We travel app. 8 months a year in timeshares and LOTS of hotels . I actually like a lot of the hotels I have stayed at better then some of the 5***** timeshares we have stayed at. Tons of memories.

 

[PigsDad]

One thing that I did not see mentioned here. Many hotels in Europe do not have A/C, especially smaller or non-branded hotels. If you are travelling in the summer months and you are used to A/C, be careful where you book a room.

Kurt